Observations on music, culture and life

May 13, 2014

Dylanology Part Two

Where Is This?

I wouldn’t be much of a Dylanologist. I realized this as I drove up to the road where Big Pink still stands, just outside of Woodstock in Saugerties, NY, with my DSLR at my side. I spotted a handmade sign hanging from a tree that basically implored those who had no official business there to respect the privacy of the residents and I promptly turned around and abandoned my quest.

After I wrote my last post I stumbled onto a New York Times article reviewing a new book titled The Dylanologists: Adventures in the Land of Bob, written by David Kinney. The book looks quite interesting.

Since I had no takers of my challenge to identify the Dylan lyric associated with the picture in the last post, I will now reveal the answer. The song is Sara from the album Desire.

Dylan wrote this song for his ex-wife. He begins the song reminiscing about watching his children play on the beach, filling their pails with water and picking up sea shells – I well remember having the same experience on the beach shown in the picture. Dylan next talks about Sara being “in the marketplace in Savannah-La-Mar.” Savannah-La-Mar (or “Sav” as the locals call it) is a town on the south coast of Jamaica.

Savannah-La-Mar doesn’t have a beach. However, directly across the bay from the marketplace is a very obscure stretch of sand known as Lost Beach. It is here that a ship carrying sugar cane was beached during a hurricane. This is the hulk in the picture on my last post and very likely the site of Dylan’s beach memories.

So, where is today’s picture from and what does it have to do with Bob Dylan?